Shahalis Rivers McLain was born June 10, 2023 to eagerly expecting parents, Shawna and Scott McLain. Shahalis was a name picked out by Shawna when she was just 9 years old. She met another girl camping with the name and swore from that point forward if she ever had a daughter she would name her Shahalis. Rivers was a name picked by Scott after one of his late friends Donny Rivers who had a lot of influence on his upbringing. 

Shahalis unveiled new meaning to life immediately. She was life, until hers was cut painfully short. On June 25, 2023 Shahalis passed away from SIDS. 

From the time Shahalis got to go home with mom and dad from the hospital she traveled far and wide. They were simply ecstatic embodying this new role as mom and dad and couldn’t wait to show her off. They traveled up to Camano Island where Shawna’s family has a beach house and spent several days up there before traveling south to introduce her to Shawna’s family at their place of residence. 

Now prior to all of this as any first time parent can relate, everything is a bit scary at first. There had been some signs of what Shawna believed were abnormal respirations which she brought up and showed video to Shahalis’ pediatrician at her 1 week check up, who reassured them, “oh babies just breathe weird, that looks completely normal”. The week continues as one happy family, then the night of June 24 around 8PM Shahalis becomes inconsolable. After trying every trick in the book Shawna called a triage nurse to help assess our next plan. She stated because of the history with my concerns for her breathing that 911 should be called so they can come evaluate her and that if mom and dad drove her to the hospital it could potentially obstruct her airway so it would be best for EMS to come to them for further evaluation. Once paramedics arrived they evaluated her and stated, “trust me, for as loud as she is and as young as she is that’s the sign of a healthy baby”. Well Shawna wasn’t sold on that but she wasn’t sure what to do given what everyone had told her. So she just stayed awake watching Shahalis sleep until she took her last breath. Death had never even been a thought up until that point. Shawna instinctually knew something was wrong but didn’t know what. She immediately began CPR on Shahalis and everyone scrambled to get paramedics back to the house where they took over life saving measures and that was the last time they saw their baby girl. 

There hasn’t been a day that has gone by that Shahalis isn’t at the forefront of their every thought and action. She had created their new identities and they will forever share her life and light with the world. 

Shahalis Rivers McLain you are missed beyond measure.